These famous Bruce Lee quotes come from a man who was a martial artist, philosopher, actor, and filmmaker. He lived from November 27, 1940, until July 20, 1973, and left a memorable legacy. In the 20th century, his movies, approach, and charisma made him an icon. Seeing a “Bruce Lee movie” was an event.
Lee Jun-fan (his birth name), aka Bruce Lee, is considered by many to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time. Enjoy his words of wisdom listed below.
Best Bruce Lee Quotes
- If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
- If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
- I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
- Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them.
- It’s not the daily increase but the daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.
- As you think, so shall you become.
- Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
- Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.
- Life is wide, limitless. There is no border, no frontier.
- Real living is living for others.
Bruce Lee Water Quote
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot. It becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
Good and Notable Quotations
- Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality, and duplicate it.
- In the middle of chaos lies opportunity.
- The possession of anything begins in the mind.
- A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
- A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
- If you always put a limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there. You must go beyond them.
- I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.
- A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.
- Ever since I was a child, I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.
- The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
- To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.
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On Life and Living
- Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
- You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.
- A fight is not won by one punch or kick. Either learn to endure or hire a bodyguard.
- Choose the positive. You have a choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.
- Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.
- The second-hand artist blindly following his sensei or sifu accepts his pattern. As a result, his action is and, more importantly, his thinking becomes mechanical. His responses become automatic, according to set patterns, making him narrow and limited.
- I am not teaching you anything. I just help you to explore yourself.
- If you want to learn to swim, jump into the water. On dry land, no frame of mind is ever going to help you.
- Knowing is not enough, you must apply; willing is not enough, you must do.
- What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately become.
Bruce Lee Quotation
- Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.
- Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
- If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
- Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
- To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.
- Be happy, but never satisfied.
- If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
- Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system
- A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
- I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.
Popular Sayings By Bruce Lee
- All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.
- Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.
- To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is
- The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.
- We hope you’re enjoying these famous Bruce Lee quotes. It’s hard to believe that he was on the earth for only 32 years.
On Defeat
- Defeat is a state of mind; No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.
- Remember, no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged.
Famous Bruce Lee Quotes On Living
- Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.
- Obey the principles without being bound by them.
- Running water never grows stale. So you just have to keep on flowing.
- Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.
- A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.
- Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.
On Love
Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning, a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature, and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.
On Philosophy
- A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
- In order to control myself, I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.
- For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.
- The more we value things, the less we value ourselves.
- Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
- To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.
- Only the self-sufficient stand alone – most people follow the crowd and imitate.
- Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.
- The successful warrior is the average man with a laser-like focus.
- If you always put a limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there. You must go beyond them.
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Bruce Lee’s Death
At the tender age of 32, Bruce Lee died of an allergic reaction to the tranquilizer meprobamate. Meprobamate is the main ingredient in Equagesic, which Lee took the evening of his death. Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce Lee’s widow, wrote to the Los Angeles Times to correct them on an article stating the cause of death. His reach has been very long despite being on Earth for a short time.
I hope you enjoyed these Bruce Lee quotes.
By Mike O’Halloran
Founder and Editor, Sports Feel Good Stories
Encore
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